Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-11-25
THE AMERICAN TROTTER.
BY THE HON. j. s. SKINNER OF WASH
INGTON CITY.


INGTON CITY.
From Am. Turf Register, Vol. xiv, P. 2l5.]
Having, as it is believed, described and
accounted for the successive modifica-
tions and general improvement of the
English horse, from many of the best of
which ours have been bred-and for the
excellence especially of their high-bred
courser and hunter; and for having adj
verted incidentally to the high national
Importance to be attached to maintaining
the horse in all his capabilities, as giving
elasticity and vigor to one great arm of
national defence-cavalry- use of
which has sometimes decided the issue of
battles and the fate of empires-we now
pass to contemplate this animal in form
in which Nimrod (Mr. Apperly) himself,
one of the most voluminous and anthem
tic writers on these subjects, and one not
prone to make admissions of English in
feriority in anything, does admit that we
excel, to wit, in our trotting horses.
Instances which will be hereafter given
of the performance of American trotters,
such as have been trained to that pace,
and timed with eXactness, in trials insti-
tuted for that purpose by numerous trot-
ting clubs, will leave no doubt of our
having well established our claim for the
excellence conceded to us in that class of
horses. and as speed in that gait. COM
bined with lastingness, is desideratum
i'm public stages, and forall kinds of light
harness and quick travelling, it becomes
an interesting inquiry, and is deemed to
be well worthy of the space here assigned
it. Whence has resulted the superiority
illustrated by these examples? Is it that
possess particular strain of horses
not to be found in other countries. not
thoroughbred, but yet of a specific breed,
which has been found or made in Ameri-
ca, and which may be kept separate and
distinct from all others, the root whereof
is not necessarily to be looked for, like
that of our thoroughbred stock, in the
English stud book, or in the blood of
some eastern ancestor-a breed to which.
in a word, recourse may be had IA a stock
of horses sui generis, and one that may
be relied upon to supply fast gOers in
this pace: Or, is it that we owe the num-
Der that can go their mile under , 80 TO
the higher estimate which is placed on
excellence in that way, in this country !;
and to the greater pains taken and skill
exercised in educating and training hors-
es to go ahead in the trot? We confess
that reflection and all the lights we pos
sess lead us TO the adoption of this lat
ter theory.
There are various reasons why this pro-
perty in the horse should be more at
tended to in this than perhaps any other
country. May it not be referred, in some
measure, to our political institutions, as
we have already seen, in the review which
has been taken of the progressive i'm
provement of horses in England, how
their qualities have from time to time
been Influenced and modified by their
field sports, the state of their roads, the
form of their coaches, the change in their
war-like and agricultural habits and I'M
plements. Under the effect of our spo-
litical institutions, which operate fire.
quent divisions of estates, it is next to
impossible that there should exist in Am
erica a class of men, with wealth suffi-
cient, either hereditary or acquired, to
maintain the costly and magnificent ar
engagements for the sports of the turf and
the chase such as have for centuries ex-
listed in England. Yet men must have
amusements, and those which are found
afield are at once the most attractive and
salutary. If one may be allowed TO quote
himself, we may repeat from the intro
duction to the Sporting Magazine, the
ideas there expressed that "the knowl-
edge of mankind so essential in every
practical pursuit, nay, the yet more es-
sential knowledge of ourselves, is not to
be found alone in solitary labor, MOI
in solitary meditation, neither is it in a
state of isolation from society that the
heart most quickly learns to answer to
the calls Of benevolence; sympathy
springs from habits of association, and a
sense of mutual dependence on each 9TH
er; and the true estimate of character,